ditch diggers

We have a ditch that runs along the front of our property for rainwater runoff to the creek in the next parcel. The township used to come along and dredge it out every so often but with the budget crunch that hasn't happened in a while. The ditch had gotten quite clogged with weeds and such, and really wasn't draining so well. Upon hearing that my LSH was thinking of hiring someone to clean it out, my boys asked to do the job for the same money he would have paid someone else. (That is, even assuming that we could get someone else, but they don't know that.)

They started the job at the beginning of October, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. They dug, they hauled, they raked, and they managed to get the entire right side of the property dredged out and running perfectly. Of course, they considered it an incidental bonus that got completely filthy in the process.

Then they didn't do anything for two months. Until yesterday morning, that is, with icy cold drizzle falling and the temperature beginning a rapid slide south for the day. THAT'S when they decided that it was the perfect time to finish the job.

I protested; I recommended they wait a day; I begged them to reconsider but they were adamant. After making sure they were bundled up properly, I told them they had exactly one hour, and then I was pulling the plug on this venture or else I would probably end up taking care of kids with pneumonia. Here they are at the 45 minute mark (Terzo was out there as well in the beginning, but he caved after about 30 minutes; still, gotta give him credit for 30 minutes in that weather):

(Note Dusty watching over them. He has decided that one of his missions in life is keeping them safe and he takes it very seriously. He cannot bear if any of them are outside and he isn't; once he's out with them, he doesn't leave their sides.)

While they were out there, my LSH noticed Secondo's cell phone vibrating with messages. A friend from church, who is slightly older than Secondo, was frantically texting him. She had seen him as she was driving by with her mom, and she was dying to know what he had done that was so horrific that his parents had sent him out in the sleet to dig ditches as punishment. She couldn't fathom what would require such draconian punishment.

She certainly couldn't get her head around the fact that it had been his idea in the first place.